Friday, September 2, 2016

IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Moscow - If You Can Land the Rata ...

I'm having a great time with the DLC. Although the selection of airplanes is narrower than back in the days and despite the "unlock this and that" buffoonery, the theater of operations is just great.

According to the narratives in this book, the I-16 had quite a temper and I am very impressed on how this is represented in the simulation.

With no trim and not even an indicator of the nose's elevation, it is tricky to keep a low speed in the I-16. I just pull the stick back and reduce the throttle to decelarate the nimble bird.

Touching down at a high angle of attack shows all idiosyncrasies of this fighter. From a huge nose that hides the runway, to a nasty tendency to flip forward if the pilot is not gentle with the brakes.

Armed with new skills for taking off and landing, I dared to go into the campaign mode, where I flew the I-16 in bomber escort sorties.

Just like in the book mentioned above, the agony of losing sight of the bombers is there. Many times I had to rely on the explosions of their bombs or the German AAA tracers arching up in search of them. Bringing them back in one piece was just priceless.